10 Days In

Well we have had Traegan home for 8 days now. It has been so much fun cuddling him and loving him so much. Oh but wait.....

This is what our bathroom countertop has looked like for the past 7 days. NOT the way I'd dreamt of starting our new life together, thats for sure. Not one of us has gotten by this last week without being medicated.

Braden: cough strips, nighttime cough meds, tylenol, delsym, ibuprofin

Devin: NyQuil, Robitussin Cough and Cold, Tylenol Cough and Cold

Traegan: gas drops.... wondering if he will do better with Sensitive, low lactose formula??

Ashley: Ibuprofin, Stool Softener, Seizure meds

Poor Braden caught a cold over last weekend, and had a terrible cough. It was so hard having Braden so sick and trying to protect our sweet little newborn from getting sick. Braden loves Traegan so much, and it was so hard to keep Braden away from him. We loaded up on hand sanitizer every 5 seconds, and really had to crack down on Braden coughing into his arm and wiping his nose on a tissue. It has been a really hard transition for me with Braden because he has been acting up, which I presume is normal, but in addition he has been super sick so I have had to be so strict with him being around the baby. He just wants to love on Traegan all the time, but when he was contagious, I was so paranoid about Traegan getting sick. It was really hard. Not to mention, Devin had to go back to work on Monday so I had to ask for a lot of help from my Mom. Thank goodness she has made herself so available to me. She has been the best ever.

We decided on Tuesday night, after Braden ended up sleeping half the night in our bed, with a high fever and an awful cough, that we should probably sleep in seperate rooms. So Devin and Braden have slept in our bed for the last 4 nights, and I have slept in Bradens room with Traegan to hopefully prevent myself from getting sick and to hope that we all would get a little sleep with only one kid waking us up. Welcome to having 2 kids right? It has been quite the emotional week for me. Now of course since Devin was sleeping with Braden, Devin has caught a cold and is in the brunt of it now. I really hope that we can keep little Traegan healthy. We will see.

However, on an up note, we really are loving our new family! We feel so blessed to have been able to bring another healthy little boy into this world. I recently realized what a blessing we have brought to Bradens life by deciding to have another baby. Until a few weeks ago, I hadn't thought about the fact that we were giving Braden a sibling, a brother. Devin and I both come from big families and are close with our siblings so it has really made a big impact on my heart to realize that we have given Braden a lifetime friend. And they are already best buddies. We are so excited as parents to watch these boys grow up together and play together. We love our new life and are really looking forward to our future together.

Presenting Traegan James Christensen

I DID IT! I am not pregnant anymore, survived another labor and delivery, and we have our little Traegan outside here with us. He was born Wednesday January 18, 2012 at 6:30pm, weighing 7lb 14oz, 19in long. He is so perfect. Honestly. I have only heard him cry when 1) he was getting his pictures taken and he just wanted to be cozy and sleeping and 2) when he gets his diaper change and he isnt cozy anymore. He loves to be all wrapped up and cozy. We are so in love with our little angel boy and we feel so incredibly blessed. (labor story to follow, skip ahead to pics if you so choose)

On Monday morning, I went into the OB nice and early to find out that I was dilated to a 4 and had my membranes stripped. I was hoping that it would kick start my labor as it had with Braden, but after several hours of mild contractions, I decided that the baby probably wasnt going to arrive and prayed hard that I would be able to get a good nights rest, which I did.
I went back into the office on Wednesday morning hoping the Dr would say "I'll see you soon at the hospital. Lets have this baby today!" He did. Yes!! I called Devin and told him that his work day was over and called my Mom to have her go and get Braden from playgroup and headed to the hospital. I got checked in and then all hooked up in my delivery room and the waiting game began around 11:40am.
We were waiting for my Dr to come and break my water in the hopes that only that would be needed to get my contractions started. Around 1:30 my Dr came and thought he broke my water, but wasn't quite sure since my body did not have the usual reaction. I was a little bugged, but he said he would be back in an hour to see if my contractions had gotten harder. An hour later, things had progressed a little, but contractions still were not yet painful, and I was dilated to a 6. He "broke my water" again and that is when things started to happen for me.
My contractions got stronger and I couldn't talk through them anymore and really had to breathe through each one. As I was walking around the labor and delivery floor they started to become more and more painful and difficult to breathe through not to mention they were around 2 minutes apart. My labor with Braden was very slow and I didnt want to get an epidural before I was dilated to a 7 this time, so I waited as long as I could stand it and asked for the epidural when I was almost a 7.
I'm so glad I asked when I did because the anesthesiologist got tied up in the ICU for about a half hour and my contractions continued to get stronger and closer and I was more and more ready for that pain relief. It was quite the struggle to remain still during the three hard contractions that I had while the anesthesiologist was administering the epidural, but once it started to kick in, I was grateful for it.
I can't decide which is worse, enduring contractions or the annoyance of epidural side effects. For me, I get very nauseated, groggy, and I get the shakes really badly. I also really dislike the tingly feeling in my legs. However, I also really dislike having strong contractions 2 minutes apart so which is the lesser of two evils? I don't think I would try to labor and deliver naturally, but I sure do dislike the side effects that come along with that relief.
Anyway, after my epidural I very quickly went from a 7 to a 10 within 40 minutes and could tell that it was time to push and was in a lot of discomfort. With Braden I feel like my epidural had been too strong and I could not feel anything, but with Traegan, I was grateful to have that "need to push" feeling because it was quite motivating being able to kind of feel what was going on. So I had Devin call the nurse in to come and check where I was at and she came in and had me do a practice push, and then left to call the Dr.
He had come over around 6 and was just waiting for me to be ready and had to pick his daughter up at 7 and sounded confident that he would make it. As soon as the nurse came back in they started prepping the room for the delivery. With Braden it was hours before they brought the necessary tools in and got things ready for the baby, so that was another thing that was very encouraging because I could tell that the staff knew things would go fast.
So after just 2 and a half contractions and a few pushes Traegan came into the world. It was the most relieving feeling just realizing that he had come so quickly! Devin had called my mom when I realized I needed to start pushing, and by the time she got to the hospital, Traegan was already getting cleaned up. She couldn't believe it since my parents live only 10 minutes from the hospital! I was thrilled when she walked in to tell her that she had missed it!!
Another part of the delivery that was different, was that the Dr stuck Traegan on my chest right when they cut the cord. That was a very special moment that I really enjoyed, just seeing that little angel fresh from heaven.
It was such an amazing process and I feel so blessed and grateful for the huge answer to prayers this delivery was. I had been praying that things would go quickly so that I could recover quickly and take care of my little guys. With Braden and I had been so exhausted for days afterward, but this time, I am feeling so good other than being sore. I had also been praying that this boy would arrive before my siblings were coming for the weekend so they could meet him when he was new! And as it turned out, I was home from the hospital before either of them got here. What a tremendous blessing this delivery was and we feel truly blessed.



Braden is so in love with his little brother and is even a little possesive. I have a feeling we are going to be reminding him often that Mommy and Daddy are in charge. However, Braden loves giving Traegan kisses and holding his hand. Today while they were laying down Braden said to him "Come here buddy!" It was so cute. We are so excited to have given Braden a little buddy to have by his side forever!

Traegan loved his time under the heat lamp after his bath and stretched out his arms and legs nice and long. He has the same round belly that Braden had, same big hands, same long toes. I think their bodies are going to be very similar.

Yesterday morning some ladies came in to take insanely overpriced photos of Traegan. They turned out really cute, except for the ones she insisted on taking with me, having not showered or even brushed my hair yet that day.

Swimming in January

During my first trimester in the summer, I would often just put my swimming suit on and take Braden out to the pool and lay in a chair an watch him swim. Turns out in my third trimester I should have been doing the same thing, just inside. I assumed that the drain on my tub wouldn't let the bath overflow, but it got pretty dang close and Braden was almost up to his neck in water. He loved it. He was literally swimming in the tub.

Then somehow the swimming turned into acro-swim and he starting doing all kinds of tricks. I was laughing my head off. He is such a little goober. And yes he still has his tan line that never goes away. :) Lucky boy.

38 Weeks

Well the time has come for the arrival of numero dos. We are eagerly anticipating his arrival and are as giddy as can be. Poor little Bradens world is about to be rocked so hard, but eventually he will get used to it and will love having a brother. I am going to be induced on Wednesday or Thurs so I wanted to get some final pregnancy pictures. It is a little sad that strangers won't be telling me how darling I am anymore, but I will get over it. Why don't strangers tell non pregnant women that they are cute. What is it about being pregnant that makes people think they should be my new best friend? Just one or two more days of that for this time around.

As you can see when it comes to love, Braden and Mommy are forever, but when it comes to fun, Braden and his Daddy are best buds. Braden gets a little crazy around Daddy cuz they are always being so wild and wrestling all the bad guys and playing monsters and such, but they are so cute to be around. Braden and Dad had a blast running around at the park the other day running down the hills and jumping up in the air. I couldn't believe I captured them both in the air, but they sure had fun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Welcome to 2012! We are very excited about this year, as it is promising lots of changes for our growing family! I have made it my goal to blog once a week this year, and while I am two weeks behind so far, I hope to catch up and stay caught up despite becoming a mother of 2 wild boys any day now. :) So for catch ups sake I will share a little something that is BIG NEWS in the Christensen household.

Braden is potty trained and is pretty much independantly so although he does need help getting up, I will help him get up forever as long as I am not changing his nasty poopy diapers or cleaning his gross accidents up. Don't remind me that I am starting over with diapers any day now. Its a lot easier to do when they are babies in my opinion. This post may be TMI for some of you, but since my blog is sort of a family journal, I am documenting it anyway so skip ahead.

I had tried once before to see if he was ready and after a day of tantrums and fits it was very apparent that he didn't care. However, less than a week before we were to leave for Arizona for thanksgiving, he expressed interest and who am I to turn down a kid who wants to go in the toilet so the potty training began just in time for a trip out of town. It may have been a little pointless considering he wore pull ups the whole time we were out of town, and then Devin and I had to leave town a few weeks later and left him with my family on a very busy weekend for them, where he wore pull ups most of the time again, but by New Years he was just about completely potty trained after a lot of effort to get him to poop on the toilet consistently. He is quite the champ and will tell himself "Good Job Braden" after he gets off the toilet. I am crossing my fingers that he will want to keep being a big boy after boy #2 arrives and that we won't have any back tracking. Way to go Braden! We are so proud of him and the big boy that he is becoming.

On another big boy note, last week, I decided to teach Braden the letter "Bb". We did an activity with the letter every day and went to the library and got a few books with lots of B's in them. My teaching style worked well and over the weekend as we were headed out and passing the stores around our house, Braden was spotting B's all over the place. It was such a fun feeling as a parent to see that important part of learning click in his little mind. This week we decided to stay on B since baby boy is coming, although I do want to switch letters every week. We love our little man and we think he is such a little smarty pants!

Christmas

I don't know who took the pictures on Christmas, but it wasn't me. Unless they are on a different memory card that I can't find. Which could be a possibility, but since I hav

e the pictures from Christmas Eve, who knows. Anyway, Christmas was delightful. I will say that I am never again going to have a January baby, simply because December is far too exhausting to be 8 months pregnant. I barely made it through and took lots of naps forcing Braden to nap with me. I was actually a little relieved once Christmas was all over.

My thoughts turned often to Mary, the mother of Jesus. With all of the car and airplane travel that we did in November and December, I just cannot imagine how she rode a donkey, or probably walked at times, the road to Bethlehem. She must have been blessed to be somewhat comfortable to make it all that way in such conditions. My heart turned often to the amazing blessing of being able to be a mother and care for these little spirits that our Father in Heaven sends to us, and I was grateful for that perspective this Christmas season.

So while I didn't get many pictures, I did get a few on Christmas Eve. Braden was a shepherd in his first every Nativity re-enactment and he did a marvelous job, until he got his cane stuck in his mouth and had to be rescued. It was cute funny. We all got a good laugh at his poor expense. And yes he does have red eye really bad in this picture. When I make my blog book I may go back and edit it, but today I am 9 months pregnant and having a baby any day so I am in a rush to update until today. :)

We all got some sweet loot for Christmas. Bradens favorite I think is his basketball hoop that Santa gave him. He likes to pretend he is Jimmer and is quite the little ball player. Daddy is currently working on teaching Braden to dribble although I'm not sure how well that is working out. He loves shooting baskets and always brings his hoop into the living room when Daddy is watching BYU or Kings games and shoots and tells us "Mommy cheer for me". He is such a funny kiddo. We love him!

Uncle Chad

This past fall, my younger brother Chad began attending UC Davis Law School, just a quick 40 minute drive away. It has been so much fun seeing him so often and Braden just loves him to death thanks to all the wrestling matches and tickle fights. We drove to visit him one day to see where he lived and to have lunch together. It was a lot of fun even though we only spent a quick hour and a half there. Braden mimics Chads every move and really looks up to his ever so studious uncles.

Thanksgiving

This year we went to Phoenix for a Thanksgiving reunion with the Christensens. It was Bradens first plane ride and despite the fact that we had to leave our house at 4:45, he was wide awake during our 6am take-off and was having the time of this life. He asks if we can go to the airport every now and then and when we can go on an airplane again.

We had so much fun visiting with the Christensen cousins, and Braden made lots of new friends who he still talks about. Braden also got to meet his Gigi Christensen for the very first time. He was so in love with her and would not leave her alone. He always wanted to sit on her every time we went to her house and showered her with hugs and kisses. She was so sweet to him and would just laugh at his crazy antics. We fell in love with the 80 degree weather and wonder if Phoenix would be a fun adventure if we ever decide to move away from our favorite home. On our drive back we got caught in traffic and at a dead stop for a half hour with people getting out of their cars and walking around, I had to take a potty break and did so in Pregnant Stealth Mode. It was a long drive home, and I learned that traveling in the third trimester is a bummer, and confirmed that fact a few weeks later in December when we drove to LA for Devins cousins wedding.

Halloween

On Halloween, we had a few friends over for soup and bread, followed by trick or treating. Braden took a few houses to get the hang of asking for candy, but eventually he got it and wouldn't leave any house without a handful of candy. As a side note, the weather was so warm that night that all of the kids who had come in layers took all of their layers off before we left and we all trick or treated in t-shirts. It was lovely!
Braden was in a pirate phase for a little while so we decided to be pirates. I must say that Braden made a dang cute pirate!!
Braden was not into even touching the pumpkin so Devin did the entire thing himself. However, he LOVED seeing his pumpkin every time we left the house and was very sad when we threw it away.